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Class Win for clubman Daniel McKenna at Jim Clark Rally

After a very tough weekend’s rallying in the Scottish Borders at the 2nd round of the BRC, the Jim Clark Rally, Daniel McKenna and Co-Driver Arthur Kierans finished a very impressive 7th O/A, won the R2 category and an extra bonus was securing the much coveted Pirelli Star Driver (PSD) nomination based on his performance on the weekend’s event.

At the wheel of his Scanbitz Ltd and Ravenol Motoroil Lubricants Ford Fiesta R2, Daniel had a mixed weekend. The event started at 7pm on Friday evening as the first stage was a short blast around the town of Duns before heading to the mammoth 16 mile Abbey St. Bathans stage.

Then a shorter 4 mile test, which were all then repeated. Daniel set the joint 2nd fastest time on the town stage with no drama, but about 6 miles into the Abbey stage the car dropped down on power getting progressively worse as the stage went on and the crew found themselves 15 seconds off the pace with no chance to repair the unknown problem until after the 6 stages on Friday night were completed before overnight service back at Kelso Racecourse.

After some investigation a faulty fuel pump was diagnosed as the problem. Daniel and Arthur put in a massive effort on the remaining stages that were completed in the darkness of Friday night, doing their best to minimize their disadvantage and finished leg 1 of the event 2nd in the R2 category and 18 seconds behind the leader, local man Gary Pearson despite the car being very uncompetitive.

A second hand fuel pump was fitted to the car with the hopes of the power loss problems eliminated before Daniel and Arthur could launch their attack for the lead of the R2 class. Leg 2 of the event was a scheduled 90 stage miles, but with the longest stage of the day was cancelled due to marshal problems, thus reducing the route by 27 miles which was going to make Daniel’s job even harder. However, undeterred the Monaghan crew set fastest R2 time, taking 8 seconds off the leader and reduced the gap to 10 seconds but unfortunately the power loss problem was not fully rectified but was a lot more manageable than Friday night.

For the next test Daniel found himself on the front foot and was confident of taking the lead from Pearson and the pressure applied to the leader was enough as Daniel was promoted to the lead as his leading rival had a spin and dropped 30 seconds. On the next test the battle was over as Pearson crashed out of the event and Daniel and Arthur had a 58 second lead over the next R2 car. A string of fastest R2 stage times throughout Saturday stretched their lead to a 1min 40 secs in the R2 category and 7th O/A by the finish.

At the finish ramp in Kelso town centre, it was announced that Daniel was the chosen nominee for the PSD competition which was the perfect way to cap of a brilliant performance on a very challenging event. Daniel and Arthur now find themselves joint leading the R2 category in the championship and lying joint 5th O/A in the main championship ahead of the 3rd round of their campaign, the Scottish rally in Dumfries which is back on gravel.

Limerick Circuit of Munster Stages Rally

The 2013 Circuit of Munster Rally had a nail biting finish at the Limerick Racecourse. Edward O’Callaghan was leading the event by 4.8 seconds coming in to the last stage but it was the Impreza WRC of Kevin Kelleher who was quickest on the last stage by 7 seconds to take a memorable win. Paul Purtill was 3rd overall, also in an escort.

This event was a counting round of the West Coast Rally Championship. The sole Monaghan representatives where the pairing of Shane Maguire and Martin McGarrity who where rewarded with the Group N win and a seventh overall, a valuable points haul for their championship bid.

1 Kevin Kelleher/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 43m 28s

2 Ed O’Callaghan/Ger Clancy (Escort) 43m 30s

3 Paul Purtill/Diarmuid Falvey (Escort) 44m 26s

4 Ed Synan/Denis O’Connell (Escort) 44m 56s

5 Alan Callaghan/Cathal McGrath (Impreza) 45m 41s

6 Frank Sweeney/Jane Cogan (Escort) 45m 42s

7 Shane Maguire/Martin McGarrity (Impreza Gp N) 46m 13s

8 Stephen Greaney/Keith McHugh (Escort) 46m 24s

9 Sean Lyons/Dean Raftery (Impreza Gp N) 46m 25s

10 Benny Kennedy/Brendan Ryan (Escort) 46m 31s

Group N Production class:

1 Shane Maguire/Martin McGarrity

2 Sean Lyons/Dean Raftery

3 Pat Price/Stephen Price (Impreza) 47m 06s

Historics:

1 P J O’Dowd/John Young (Sunbeam) 31m 00s

2 Philip McKibbin/Padraig Brick (Escort) 32m 14s

3 David Dee/Rita Dee (Mini) 35m 17s

Juniors:

1 Damien Boyle/Joseph Boyle (Civic) 28m 02s

2 Darren Young/Sean Walsh (Civic) 28m 04s

3 Andrew Ryan/Tommy Hayes (Civic) 28m 38

Sol Rally Barbados

A big well done to club members Raymond Conlon/Darren McCague and Maurice Moffett/Jason McKenna who were competing in the Sol Rally Barbados over the past two weekends. Both crews finished the event with Conlon/McCague finishing 24th overall and 5th in class. They also lifted the highest oversea’s rear wheel drive award. Moffett/McKenna finished just two places behind in 26th o/a and 2nd in class. Its evident from the many videos and photo’s available that both these crews had an enjoyable event, along with their many travelling supporters. Hopefully full report and photo’s to follow in the coming weeks when they return.